Reaping the Whirlwind
by finmagik
Summary: The Fourth Doctor dreams of a little girl desperately in need of of his help. And there are dire consequences when he is prevented from giving it.
1. Chapter 1

The Doctor didn't often sleep; it wasn't in his nature. However, today was the exception. Something in the relaxing atmosphere of the planet and the picnic lunch he had consumed combined to make him very drowsy indeed. He closed his eyes and slept.

He found himself in a dimly lit room. In fact, it was almost pitch black. In the far corner crouched a figure: a small child with a shaved head and a scar across its brow.

"Hello, I'm the Doctor. I say, how did you get that awful scar? Did you fall from your bike?" he asked.

The child didn't reply, just stared ahead with wide frightened eyes. He examined the child more closely. It was wearing a shapeless tunic like the children of his own planet. The child was Gallifreyan. He tried reaching out to the child mentally but still nothing. It was as if he wasn't really there.

And there was a voice calling outside the room. "Sulia, Sulia, where are you?" It was a smooth, calm masculine voice.

The child, the girl, hunched closer and tighter into a fetal position.

"Sulia, it's Daddy. I'm going to find you," said the voice.

And the door opened and a light was switched on. The Doctor looked at the man, the Time Lord, standing in the doorway. He was dressed in black velvet. His eyes were blue, and his hair and his beard were both brown. He was strangely familiar, as if the Doctor knew him but couldn't quite place him.

"There you are," said the man, the Time Lord, and he marched over to the girl. "You've been very naughty hiding from us like that. Now come with me." He took her by the arm gently.

She pulled her arm away and glared at him. "NO!" she said. "I don't wanna!"

"Sulia, will I have to take you over my knee?" he asked.

She looked scared and worried. "You wouldn't hurt me, Daddy, you never do."

"But Mummy would. She wouldn't hesitate," he said. "Now come with me."

"NO! I don't want 'nother surgery! They make me hurt all over, in my head, and my mind is all weird," she said. "It hurts really bad!" She clutched at her head and began to rock back and forth.

"Darling, it's for the best. Mummy wants you to be the best little girl you can be, and for that you need surgery," he said.

"NO, NO, NO!" she screamed. "You can't make me!"

"Very well, then." He sighed. "I won't."

"You won't?" she asked.

"No, of course not, darling. If it really hurts you. I'll have a talk with Mummy and we won't do it anymore," he said soothingly.

She looked at him, hope dawning in her eyes. "Really?"

"Yes, of course!" he said. "Now give me a hug. Won't you, darling?"

She nodded.

He opened his arms and she put her own arms around him. There was a flicker of movement as he reached into a pocket and quickly removed a syringe. He plunged it into his daughter's slender arm and she went limp, unconscious. He smiled and gave a soft chuckle. He carried her over his shoulder to an operating room and placed her body on the table.

A woman appeared. She was dressed in teal-colored scrubs, a cap over her hair and a surgical mask over her mouth. "You found her and you brought here, good." she said.

"It is laughably easy to lie to her. Ah, the utter gullibility of the young," he said smoothly.

"Don't gloat. She's just a timetot and you are always too gentle with her anyway," said the woman. "Now get ready. I'm going to need some assistance with this."

"If you insist." He sighed and walked off.

The Doctor found he was hovering over the operating table.

Sulia's body was covered with a white sheet up to her neck. Next her father reappeared, garbed in surgical wear.

"Experiment 27G," said the mother.

The Doctor watched, horrified and disgusted, as Sulia's mother took a rotating blade and sliced open her daughter's skull. Then he became awake of someone watching him. It was Sulia, or rather, the spirit of her.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"I'm the Doctor," he said. "I'd offer you a jelly baby but I don't think you could eat it as a ghost."

"No." She frowned.

"Your father lied to you," said the Doctor.

"Yes," said Sulia. "Daddy keeps doing that. He says only fools tell the truth all the time and only fools believe it all the time."

"Ah, well, he is right there," the Doctor said.

"I don't like it when he does that or when Mummy hurts me. They keep sayin' that they want me to be perfect. But I don't want to be perfect if it hurts so much," she said.

"Do you know your mummy and daddy's names?" asked the Doctor. "Other than Mummy and Daddy, of course."

"Well, Mummy is called the Rani," said the girl. "And Daddy likes being called the Master."

"Oh, Rassilon! If you haven't noticed, Sulia, your parents aren't very nice people. Very bad people indeed. In fact, they are what grownups call psychopaths," the Doctor said.

"Well, Daddy always says goodness is just for the weak. And Mummy says it's for the timid," Sulia said.

"And do you believe them, Sulia?" the Doctor asked earnestly.

"I don't know. All I know is I wish they'd stop hurting me," she said.

"I could help you, Sulia," the Doctor said. "I could make sure they'd never hurt you again."

"Really, you promise?!" she said. "You're not lying, are you?"

"Of course I'm not! This is too important to fib about. As soon as I'm up and about, I'll find you and take you from this. You can go back to Gallifrey or stay on the TARDIS with Sarah Jane and me," the Doctor said.

"I'd like that," said Sulia.

"Right-ho I think I'll be getting up now," said the Doctor. "See you soon--"

"Stop!" a voice called. And the Doctor turned. A woman in a red dress, with long black frizzy hair and a mad look in her eyes, was glaring at him. "You'll forget."

"No, I don't think so," said the Doctor.

Sulia began to cry. "I don't like her. She talks to me in my head and makes it hurt!"

"Shut up, you don't know … you can't know the gifts they are giving you," said the woman.

"… You're a Time Lady, aren't you?" said the Doctor.

And the woman smiled slowly. "I am beyond a mere Time Lady."

"Ah, are you going to tell I shouldn't interfere?" he asked the woman.

The woman nodded. "Yes."

"Because you can bloody well shove it, if you do! I'm not letting an innocent child be tortured by those two sociopaths," said the Doctor.

"GET HER AWAY!" screamed Sulia. "I HATE HER!"

"FORGET, DOCTOR," the woman demanded. "FORGET AND WAKE UP."

Suddenly, jarringly, the Doctor was awake. Sarah Jane was staring at him with a puzzled expression on her face.

"Doctor? Are you alright?" she asked.

"Sarah Jane! We have to get to the TARDIS immediately!…There is…someone…Oh, bugger, I can't remember now…there was a girl and she needed our help. I don't really know why anymore. But she needed it!" the Doctor said.

"Doctor, you were dreaming. You had a nightmare," Sarah Jane said.

"Ah, yes, I suppose I did," the Doctor said. "It mustn't have been important if I can't remember it."


	2. Chapter 2

It had been a trying year, starting with the death of Adric, then Tegan going away and returning. Nyssa had insisted on celebrating her friend's return.

Thankfully, half-way through the Doctor was able to slip away and go the library. He found his favorite chair and his trusty copy of _Tom Brown's School Days. _He opened it at the page he had dog eared and began to read. He found his head nodding and his eyes closing. He put down the book, folded his hands on his lap, and gave in to sleep.

The Doctor could feel hands stroking his face and running through his hair. He looked up into the face of a woman. Her eyes were an intense green, her hair long, shining, and dark, and she was smiling at him. He knew her, but couldn't quite place her. He knew one thing: He was lying down, his head in her lap.

"Who are you?" he asked.

She didn't reply, but leant down and kissed him. Her lips tasted sweet, almost honey-like.

"Uhh… thank you. I'm flattered but you still haven't answered my question," he said.

"You know me, you will know me. I am nothing to you but a figment of a half-forgotten dream. I could become reality, if you choose," she said.

"Yes, yes, I would like your name, though," he said.

"My father taught me and my mother released my potential," she said with a smile. "And you know them of old."

He sat up. "I don't often find myself in strange women's laps on---" He looked around. They were in a meadow in springtime. The grass was green and dotted with wildflowers. The sky was a cloudless blue. "Where am I?"

"Your dream, my memories," she said. "You are so handsome."

"Er, thank you," he said, blushing.

"I want to kiss you again," she said, leaning forward.

He leant back away from her. "Ah, no," he said.

He could smell smoke; it tinged the air with acridness. He looked to the east and saw a black cloud of smoke rising from the horizon. He could faintly hear the sounds of screaming.

"You don't want to go over there," she said. "Stay here with me, Doctor."

"I think I do. Something awful is going on, and I must help those people," he said.

"You can't help them," she said. She was smiling again. There was a look in her eye, a gleam he didn't like or trust.

"I want to see what's going on," he said firmly. "This is my dream. I will see."

"Fine," she said, glaring.

And suddenly they were in the center of a small town. The buildings around them were burning and panicked people were running away. There were bodies strewn across the streets, some in pools of blood and some charred corpses. And amidst all this chaos stood a woman. She was beautiful, a china doll in a ruffled, bloodstained, periwinkle-colored frock. Her hair was thick, blonde, and in curls. Her eyes were closed and she was smiling. She was also hovering off the ground slightly.

The Doctor looked from the dark woman by his side to the other one. "That's you, isn' t it?" the Doctor said.

"Yes, my third incarnation. I was a bit wild back then," she said.

"You're a Time Lady," the Doctor said. He had known it from the moment he saw her but saying it was just confirming it.

"I am more then a Time Lady. I am the pinnacle of Gallifreyan evolution," she said.

A man ran past them, a pistol in his trembling hand. He ran towards the blonde woman and aimed it at her. "You, you did this! You monster!We never harmed you. Why, why?" the man asked desperately.

The blonde woman opened her eyes and glared at the man. She made an upward gesture with her right hand and clenched her fist.

The man staggered back, fountains of blood pouring from his mouth, eyes, nose and ears. It spattered across her face. She hovered over to him and said with a small smile, "Because I can."

Then she moved through the village, flames shooting from her open hands and setting alight houses and people.

The Doctor felt his stomach turn. He looked at the dark-haired version of the woman. "You monster."

"You once destroyed a third of the universe. And how many have died, how many have suffered because you happened to appear in their midst?" she asked. "We are not so different, you and I."

"I am not like you at all," he said, disgust thick in his voice. "I would never do this."

"I only attacked small, remote villages and colonies, and for such a little time. I never brought down whole civilizations. I never committed genocide," she said calmly.

The watched as the light haired woman, the third incarnation of the woman, went over to a baby that had been left crying on the street. She picked it up by the foot and dashed its brains against the paving stones. Then, covered in blood and brains, she began to laugh, a high pitched giggle, then collapsed, sobbing and cradling the broken body of the infant.

"Who are you?" the Doctor asked.

"They call me the storm. They call me the blood goddess, the cunt goddess, and Lady Destruction. I have used many titles. But in my hearts, I will always be Sulia," she said.

And suddenly a door opened in his mind, a fragment he hadn't thought of in centuries: a little girl, afraid and in need of his help.

"I'm so sorry. I could have helped you. Why didn't I help you?" he said.

"I didn't need your help," she said, frowning. "My mother improved me, made me perfect. My father taught me all sorts of things, like how to live unencumbered by petty moral and ethics."

"You… it was you… you stopped me from remembering the dream. But how?" he said.

"I have my ways," she said.

"Why?" he asked.

"I like the way I am," she said.

In the middle of the burning village, the third incarnation of Sulia was alternating between violent sobbing and maniacal laughter. Her hands were in her beautiful hair, ripping it out in chunks. The Doctor stared at her for a moment or two and said, "No, you don't."

"You don't know me!" shouted the current incarnation of Sulia. "You don't know what I can I do! I am the storm! I am the blood goddess, the cunt goddess! AND I WANT YOU!"

"Ah, no. I'm sorry but you repulse me," he said quietly.

"You always say that," she said as if hurt by his words. "WAKE UP AND FORGET."

The Doctor opened his eyes. He was in his favorite chair in the library_, Tom Brown's School Days _resting on a table by his side. He rubbed his eyes. He been dreaming, but now it was fading fast and all he had in his mind was one image: a perfect china doll of a woman, hovering inches off the ground as devastation spread all around her. He wondered briefly what it meant, then shrugged and picked up his book.


	3. Chapter 3

The Doctor was in his study playing chess with himself, using different strategies he had picked up from different time periods. Would the tried and true one that Eleanor of Aquitaine favored triumph? Or would the favored method of V'arnic of Salvos IV win? To tell the truth, he was losing interest in the chess game at the moment. Ace was in her room, and he wondered if he should visit her….

He blinked. He felt heavy and bleary, not his normal sharp, clear, intense self. Only one thing to do, something he detested: sleep. He put his hat down over his eyes, leant back against the chair, and closed his eyes.

It was dark, almost pitch black, and there was a dripping sound in the background of water falling into a distant pool. He was lying on his back, arms and legs apart. The surface he was on was hard and uneven: a rock. When he attempted to move his arms, he found they were chained. He was chained in a cave.

A figure was standing before him, an adolescent girl with bobbed black hair who was dressed in a low cut top and a long flowing skirt. He knew her somehow.

"Hello, I was wondering are these chains really necessary?" he asked.

She thought for a moment and licked her lips. "Yes."

"I know you from somewhere, don't I?" he said.

"Yes," she replied.

"Will you tell me your name, then?" he asked.

She didn't say anything, but she approached the rock he was chained to. Something was gleaming in her right hand: a curved meta dagger. Was she going to cut out his liver while he was chained like Prometheus? No; she mounted the rock and him, her waist over his own, and at that moment he knew she wasn't wearing anything under her skirt. He could smell her… an odor that was something like burning rubber and animal musk.

"You're on heat," he said.

"You're very astute," she said and took the knife and held it inches from his throat. "I want you to mate with me."

"As flattered as I am, I don't usually respond well to daggers at my jugular. Or strange girls propositioning me. That's what you are, just a girl. A girl whose name I don't know," he said.

"I am the storm, I am the blood goddess, the cunt goddess, and lady destruction, I am perfection, I am my father's daughter and my mother's pride," she said.

"Those are grrrandiose titles for such a young girl," he said.

She smiled. "I am not as young I appear. You know a young body can house an old mind."

Despite the dagger, despite the hard jagged rocks poking at his back, he was beginning to get aroused. Her scent was getting to him. He hadn't caught a whiff of a female on heat since Romana left. He'd forgotten the strong biological response it elicited. He didn't like it.

"This isn't real!" he protested. "This is just a dream!"

"But you know this will be real, it could be. All you have to do is find me. This only a memory," she said. "My memory."

He could feel his body straining. Every cell wanted union with her but his mind rebelled against it. He was smart; he was reasonable. "What is your name?"

"I was called Sulia once," she said.

"Sulia…" He tasted the word in his mouth. A flash: a woman in the middle of destruction… and a girl alone, afraid, with no one to help her. And he knew. "I'm afraid I'm a bit old for you, girl," he said.

"Does that matter? You prefer them young and tender in this incarnation. And I'm virgin, in this body at least." She smiled.

"Why should that matter to me?" he said. But it did on one level.

And then a distraction appeared suddenly. A door opened in the cave and three figures came in. One was a woman in a fine red silk gown, her brown hair up in shining and elaborate knots. She wasn't walking. She was hovering, inches from the ground. She was followed by two men: one young, one old. They were not looking at her but at the soil.

Sulia swore. "Not now, why now?!"

"You can't control the memory, can you," the Doctor said.

She glared at him.

The old man said, "We are honored, Goddess, that you have chosen us from among your priesthood to witness your rebirth."

"Yes, most honored," said the young man.

"As it only occurs every three hundred years," said the old man.

"Come to me," said the woman who had once been Sulia.

And they came to her. "On your knees," she ordered. And they obeyed. She took out a dagger from her dress, the same shimmering and curved dagger that was currently being held against the Doctor's throat, and she went to the old man. She took the dagger and plunged it through his eye socket. He whimpered but didn't move. She cut out one eye out and then the other.

"You have blinded me," said the old man. There was awe in his voice rather than resentment.

"You will hear but never see," she said. She wiped the dagger off on his robes and went to the young man.

The young man opened his mouth. She bent down and bestowed a kiss on his cheek, then took the dagger and cut out his tongue. Again he didn't move; only tears on his cheeks betrayed his pain.

"You have removed his tongue, Goddess," said the old man.

"He will bear witness but never be able to speak a word of it," she said.

She took the dagger to herself and cut open her gown. She stepped out naked, her body perfect. Then she took the dagger in her hands and stabbed herself in the chest, once on the left side and once on the right, deep, precise wounds directly to each heart. She staggered back, bleeding and crying, fell to the hard ground, and then turned into golden light. It poured from her limbs and her head. Then a new woman was lying there, her body's immature breasts only buds at her chest and her hair a black bob. It was the same woman, the same girl, who was on top of the Doctor now.

"Go now," ordered the new Sulia to the men.

They left the cave. She closed her eyes and fell asleep.

"So you've just regenerated," the Doctor said. "And already you're on heat."

"Yes, and you will find me. You will join me. We will rule side by side. You have to. My body calls to you," she ordered.

"No. You are too young, and besides that you sicken me, pretending to be a goddess in some distant world. If I do find you, I will show them what you really are," he said.

"Very well. Then I have no choice. Let's see if it's true then," she said.

"What's true?" he asked.

She slashed the dagger across his throat. His blood spouted and flowed from the wound. He was dying; he was helpless.

"If you die in dreams, will it happen in real life?" she asked, her face and breasts wet with his blood. "Now forget, and wake if you can."

He cried out and clutched at his throat, his hearts beating like drums. He looked around. He was in his study on the TARDIS.

Ace was standing in the doorway. "Professor? Is everything alright?" she asked.

"Fine, fine," he said, regaining control. "I was just dozing… I had a funny dream…."

"Oh, alright then," Ace said.

He fought to remember the dream. There was a girl, a cave, and she slit his throat. Nothing else was there. Nothing remained. It was unpleasant. There were more important things to do.


End file.
